Berserk of Gluttony (LN) Volume 1 Chapter 2

The struggling gluttony skill

Having drank my fill
of wine until I felt tipsy, I decided to check up on Roxy before
heading back to the ragged place I called home. Due to the incident
with Rafal and his siblings, I could not stop worrying about her. No
matter how crooked Rafal was, I knew he was not the type to start
harassing her immediately, yet, the image of his defiant smirk was
embedded in my mind. Even if something truly did happen, I would
definitely be too weak to protect her so the very least that I could
do was act as a meat shield.

In the moonlight, I
saw the castle gate where she stood doing her duty as a gatekeeper
properly.

I drew a long breath
and felt a sense of relief wash over me. It seemed that I had worried
for nothing. Then, to the girl who was working so hard, I cheered on
for her from my heart, “Roxy-sama, please continue to do your
best.”

However, I was just
about to leave when a shadow climbing over the east wall of the
castle caught my eye.

That was a blind
spot for Roxy and the other guards on patrol, yet perfectly visible
from where I stood. They were definitely bandits. For them to climb
the wall this late into the night, I could not think of anyone who
would do such a thing apart from thieves. Hurriedly, I rushed to
where Roxy was standing at guard.

“Roxy-sama,
there’s an urgent issue!”

“What’s wrong?
You should have returned home by now…”

“I was taking a
walk to sober up when I saw people sneaking into the castle. They
climbed in over the east wall.”

“Really?!”

“There’s no
mistaking it, I saw them properly with my own eyes.”

Of course it would
be difficult to believe given that I had said this so suddenly, and I
began to feel anxious. However, Roxy looked into my eyes and said,

“I believe you.
I’ll head over there now, so can you stay here and protect the gate
in the meantime?”

“Yes, of course.”

Roxy handed me the
spear with the Royal Family emblem.

“May fortune be
with you, Roxy-sama.”

“Please leave it
to me. For this, I still have confidence in my own strength.”

Pulling out a white
sword, she ran in the direction I had told her. So fast… After all,
she was a Holy Knight. In a blink of an eye, her figure disappeared
into the darkness.

Before long, the
screams of men could be heard. It was easy to imagine Roxy defeating
the thieves one after another. From the number of cries, I could tell
that there were quite a lot of them. It was definitely more than just
two or three bandits.

Nevertheless, Roxy
was a Holy Knight. She would never be beaten by people like thieves.
Sure enough, the commotion gradually stopped and it became quiet.
Just as I was feeling relieved that it was over, a man with a strong
build came running towards me from out of the dark.

There was no doubt
that he was one of the thieves who had escaped Roxy. As he
approached, the moonlight clearly illuminated his appearance. This…
I took a sharp breath.

His right arm was
missing, having been completely chopped off. Desperately clutching it
with his left hand in the attempt to stop the bleeding, he ran
towards me. His complexion was pale, surely caused by extreme anemia
from the severe bleeding.

I readied the spear.
I could not let him escape. Even if it meant that the man would die,
he was a bandit that needed to be dealt with accordingly. Despite the
fact that I was acting as a gatekeeper in Roxy’s place, letting him
go would definitely cause her trouble. I had to defeat him without
fail.

The enemy was
wounded. Even for a powerless person like me, I should be able to
defeat him. Feeling brave, I thrust the spear forward and pierced it
into the thief with as much force as I could muster. By sheer luck,
the spear penetrated straight through his heart. The thief reached
forward and grabbed ahold of the spear, his glare furious. With heavy
bleeding from his chest, he fell backwards onto the ground.

His limbs continued
to convulse for a while, until all his movements finally ceased. The
thief was definitely dead.

“I did it, I
defeated… Eh?!”

At that moment, I
felt something flow through my body and I heard a robotic voice in my
mind.

Status update?
Skills added? What was this voice? What did this mean? And this
feeling of satiety that I have never experienced before since birth
that until now, no matter how much I had eaten, could never be
satisfied. Right now, this feeling of satisfaction was the best.

While I was still
immersed in this unfamiliar yet uplifting feeling, Roxy shouted as
she rushed up to me.

What? I heard Roxy’s
voice in my head. Even though she was not talking, her voice was
somehow clearly there in my mind.

“What’s wrong?”

“…No, it’s
nothing. I’m not hurt.”

(Really? Thank
goodness… I’m really glad.)

I heard it again, a
voice that was relieved for my safety. This, could this be Roxy’s
inner thoughts? When her hand released mine, I became unable hear her
again.

This was mysterious.
Perhaps I had hallucinated it due to the strain from the fight.
Either way, I could not so casually touch a Holy Knight like Roxy
again just to confirm whether it had actually happened or not.

A total of ten
thieves had snuck into the castle, and Roxy had opposed all of them
by herself. Just as I had thought, Holy Knights were strong indeed.
Of that, I had played but a small part in killing one bandit. This
was only possible because she had pursued and injured him so
severely, almost to death.

Hence, Roxy should
take all the credit for this.

“Roxy-sama, please
take all the credit for this matter.”

“I cannot do that.
You defeated one of them, didn’t you?”

For me, I had
another issue; my employer, Rafal. If he heard about this incident,
that I had assisted another Holy Knight, he would become unreasonably
enraged and I had no idea what he might do. Also, Rafal did not think
well of Roxy, and he would reprimand me even more for this.

“If Rafal-sama
heard about this, my position would be at stake…”

“Ah… that’s
true. I understand. I will handle this case as you have suggested.”

“Thank you.”

“It is I who
should be thanking you. If you had not informed me, I would have had
to take responsibility for the blunder.”

Even for a Holy
Knight who was winning at life, the battle for success seemed to be
severe. For someone like me at the very bottom, I could not perceive
that hardship.

“So, please let me
thank you.”

“No no, for a Holy
Knight to say such a thing…”

As I lowered my
head, she seemed to think that I did not like her gesture and puffed
up her cheeks, pouting. Since she had never made such an expression
before, I was surprised. I felt like I had become just a little
closer to Roxy.

“Well let’s see…
Oh right.”

Somewhat
mischievously, Roxy clapped her hands together. I know I should
accept her gratitude, yet what could she be thinking? My heartbeat
quickened. And then, from her mouth came an outrageous question,

“Would you like to
work for the Heart Family? If I told my father about this incident,
he would surely agree to give you a job.”

“Eh?! But my skill
is useless… it would be beyond my capabilities.”

“There’s no such
thing! Did you not just defeat a thief?”

That was simply a
stroke of good luck, for next time something like this happened, it
would be impossible for me to do that again.

“Nevertheless, for
me…”

Losing her temper at
my hesitance, she dealt a finishing blow with a final statement.

“There is no need
to worry about the Breric Family. Unless, you want to work for them
for the rest of your life?”

“Urk.”

She had seen through
me, knowing that I lived in fear of the Breric Family’s harassment.
Even with that, she said she wanted to hire me. I felt like my tears
would fall.

A future of being
overworked to death under Rafal who had the worst personality ever,
compared to the rosy life I would have working for the beautiful
Roxy. There was nothing I needed to consider. Besides, I was Roxy’s
fan. Was this not a dream come true?

“Thank you, I
really appreciate it, Roxy-sama!”

“Alright. It’s
already late today, so please come to the Heart Family’s house
tomorrow at noon. I’ll be waiting.”

Feeling joyful
enough to fly, I bowed my head to Roxy many times before leaving.
When I was far away enough that the castle gate was out of sight, I
jumped into the air and raised my fist in triumph. Finally, luck has
come to me. Somehow, my body felt lighter than usual, and it was a
good thing. I hurried back to my run-down home to prepare for
tomorrow.